
Originally Posted by
xPhantomSilviax
Becauuuuuuuuse....
In the US, Honda had a VERY good thing going with the Honda Civic. It was (and still pretty much is) their bread and butter car. Consequently, when they released the CRX to America, they named it the Civic CRX (you see quite a few of them badged as such). They did this so that the name association would instill a sense of confidence in the buyer... IE "It's a Civic! Civics are reliable! I will buy this new Civic!" Even though the CRX is a different "branch" of the Honda family tree. In Japan, the CRX was the CRX, the Civic/Ferio was the Civic/Ferio. No name confusion. In 1991, Honda released the 3rd generation of the CRX... the CRX del Sol. The car was released in 1992, coming over to America in 1993. Honda's nomenclature of the CRX as the Civic CRX had been successful, with people buying up the CRX based on its shared chassis with the EF Civics. Honda decided to try their luck for the second time with the del Sol, which was based off the EG chassis. So in Japan, you have it truly named as the CRX del Sol, indicating that it is the 3rd generation in the CRX branch. In the US, however, it was sold as the Civic del Sol, relying again on the popularity of the Civic. from 1993-1995 the car was marketed as the Civic del Sol. In 1996 and 1997, the last 2 years of US sales, the "Civic" was dropped from the badging, so that only "del Sol" appeared on the rear garnish.
And the chassis of the del Sol remained unchanged from 1993 to 1997. While the Civics had switched to a newer chassis (EK/EM I believe they're called, but I get a little fuzzy on Civic codes), the del Sol remained an EG, kind of like how the Integra was a DC from 94-01. To me, the fact that the Sol remained the same serves as proof that Honda thought of the del Sols as independent from the Civics.